SYDNEY -- Miki Nakao claimed a bronze medal for Japan in the women's 200-meter backstroke final at the Sydney Aquatic Center on Friday night, while the women's 4x100 medley relay team swam their way into contention for a medal in Saturday's final.

Nakao, fifth in the same event in Atlanta, may have come third, but she looked like a gold-medal winner as she rushed over to high-five her teammates on the way to the medals ceremony.

The 22-year-old Nagasaki woman swam 2:11.05 for the bronze, which she adds to the one she took home from the Pan Pacific Championships in 1997.

Tomoko Hagiwara's time of 2:11.21 gave her fourth place in the race, which was dominated by Romania's Diana Mocanu.

Mocanu, who beat Mai Nakamura to the gold medal in the 100-meters backstroke final Monday in a new Olympic record and won bronze in the 100-meters butterfly Sunday, swam 2:08.16 Friday night.

World champion Roxanna Maracineanu of France won the silver in a time of 2:10.25.

But Nakao, who went into the race with the second fastest time of the year, displayed champion qualities as she shook hands with her rivals before climbing the podium to accept her medal.

Nakao swam 2:10.40 at the national championships in April but finished fifth in the semifinals Thursday in a time of 2:12.49, and it looked like Hagiwara was Japan's medal hope.

Hagiwara qualified second for the final in 2:11.02 but couldn't find the extra pace needed to reach a medal Friday.

Earlier in the day, Japan's women's 4x100 medley relay qualified second fastest for Saturday's final.

Mai Nakamura, swimming the backstroke, Masami Tanaka on the breaststroke leg, Junko Onishi in butterfly and Sumika Minamoto flew down the pool to record a time of 4:05.76, 1.01 seconds behind the Aussie foursome of Giaan Rooney, Tarnee White, Petria Thomas and Sarah Ryan.

But the U.S. team, in fourth place, did not include seven-time relay gold medalist Jenny Thompson, quadruple Sydney Games medalist Dara Torres, and 100 breaststroke Olympic champion Megan Quann.

Nakamura led the field for the first 100 meters in 1:01.61 -- and swam even faster Monday night to win her silver -- while national champion Masami Tanaka swam another disappointing 1:09.37.

"Mai did a really great change over with me. I was tired from last night's race, but I think I've done better than I expected," Tanaka said.

Tanaka came home sixth in the 100-meter breaststroke final Monday in 1:08.37, more than a second off the 1:07.27 that she posted in April to be the second fastest woman over that distance this year.

In other races Friday, Takashi Yamamoto came fifth in the men's 100 meters butterfly final and Sachiko Yamada was last in the women's 800-meter freestyle final -- 17.72 seconds behind winner Brooke Bennett of the United States.

Sumika Minamoto qualified seventh for Saturday's final of the women's 50-meter freestyle, coming fourth in her semifinal Friday in a time of 25.43, just shy of her Japan record time of 25.37.

In the 1,500-meter freestyle, Japan's Masato Hirano swam into 13th place in 15:14.43, failing to make the final.